go go garden.

I totes can't believe how quickly everything is growing in the garden now that it's gotten started. We have almost all the transplants in, with only a few more basil and pepper plants to go, then a bit more direct seeding. I transplanted about 24 winter squash and melons today, and between today and yesterday Judi and I put in about 80 tomato plants. We are gonna have some damn fine eating. I'm stoked on the amount of gardening time I get in with Judi, because she's a lot of fun to work with and an exceedingly valuable source of gardening info. So, yeah, everything is pretty much just exploding in the garden. I wish I could keep on the weeding and thinning a bit better, but all in all it's looking pretty amazing. Things seem to be coming together in terms of who likes to do what in there as well. Devo is admirably obsessive about keeping things tidy looking which I suck at, I really like doing some of the prep work like forking the beds because it's a good workout and makes me feel tough, and Judi can transplant like a race car.

The new batch of meat birds arrived at the post office in Castlegar last night. We picked them up and got the dubious pleasure of driving home on a hot night with the heat on and the windows rolled up (better to contain the bird smell and manic peeping noises). These guys look a lot better off than the last batch, who were pretty miserable. They have bounced back now that they're out in the pasture in their chicken tractor, but they were pretty wretched for awhile. It's good to start fresh (even with the hours I spent shovelling chicken shit out of the garage to get to said fresh start) and to actually see how things are supposed to work for the meat birds. With them showing up chilled and sick last time it was hard just to keep them alive, let alone anything else.

The pigs are doing exceedingly well also. They are a bit sunburnt still, but seem to be learning to stay out of the sun quite so much. They are growing really fast already, and seem to be uber healthy. They are getting pretty damn fine feed as well, between the organic starter we have them on, and the top quality table scraps (certified organic spinach and radishes, for example). Judi had some raspberry pulp left over from juicing the other day and some buttermilk that was almost off, so they got a meal of berries and cream, which is pretty style-y by human standards even. We are still trying to figure out a price for them, so if anyone happens to be in some sort of fancypants supermarket and can remember to take a look at the price of organic pork, please let me know.

I am getting really stoked to hit up Victoria in June .... it will be uber rad to get to see everyone and get a little more social time in than my life has contained of late. Still, I feel pretty damn settled in here. I feel like there was an initial stage of feeling like I was on a schmancy country vacation, a middle stage of feeling a bit restless w/ spending so much time on the farm, and now I like the work and the area more and more with every day. Basically, farming seems to have everything I want to do ... hard work that relates to food and lets me spend a ton of time outside and around rad animals. Pretty damn perfect, I'd say.

The photos above are from my morning walk with the dogs ... they get pretty stoked to be out in the woods, so it's hard to take any picture besides one of them running away rapidly and excitedly. Bean goes on particularly epic adventures, and is always being spotted making these huge leaps or running daringly across a log spanning the creek or whatevs. It's good to see him so happy, anyway.

We put the meat birds out in the field in their chicken tractor yesterday, so between them and the pigs it's looking pretty farm-y out there. The chickens are still pretty repellent little creatures, but they look a lot nicer wandering around in the grass than they do huddling under the heat lamp in the garage. I know they need an enclosed space when they're little and can't physically handle being outside, but I still feel bad shutting them in. The pigs are doing really well and seem happy and comfortable. They have started to be a bit less lazy, and when we head out to check on the field and open the gate and stuff first thing in the morning, they recognize us and stand there grunting expectantly for their breakfast. They also follow you around when you go in to feed them or visit, and occasionally get so bold as to try and eat your pants, so I would say they're nicely settled in.

Devin found some morels in the yard a couple of days ago, so we stuck them in a stir fry along with farm asparagus, radishes, spinach, and some other non farm-y food. It was max delicious, and cool to be eating so much from the garden already. We've also been eating a buttload of rhubarb, which has been totes tasty.

I got out for a real bike ride for the first time the other day. Devin was working a full day, so I biked lunch down to him and hang out for a bit. It's weird to be on a cushy, fat tired bike instead of my old road bike, but I dig it. It's definitely a lot more relaxing to ride down country roads than fight commuter traffic and constantly be thinking "oh shit, one of these jerks in an SUV is totally gonna hit me today." All in all, I miss bike riding a lot less than I thought I would, so that's cool. I think biking is maybe a bit more empowering in a city, where you tend to be a lot more divorced from the necessities of life. Being able to take back responsibility for your transportation and not be indentured to the bus routes is a really big deal. I guess here not only is pretty much everything I do all day long good exercise and a fun way to be outside, but I also spend virtually all my time meeting my daily needs directly, instead of trading time for money and taking that roundabout route back to providing for myself. So, yeah, not pining for the bike quite as much as I thought I would, and that is rad.

And I should really stop typing and start weeding again, so I will get off the internet and back into the garden. Trying to get a bunch done today as Chad is coming this weekend and I'd like to take at least a half day off. I am totes stoked to have a visitor!

So first off, the pigs are pretty totes awesome. They run around three abreast, and if one of them gets behind it catches up with these little rabbit-esque leaps and until it thunks itself into the side of one of the lead pigs, then they frisk around as a team again. Gretchen is insanely fascinated by them, and spent the first two days we had them with her head stuck as far as it would go through the fence wire, whining and trying to get through and hang out with her piggy brethren. The pigs have been doing an impressive job of pawing away at the fenceline already, so we got the strand of electric fencing in yesterday, which seems to be a good deterrent, although I feel bad when they hit it and start squeaking. I couldn't watch when the first started running into it, although Devin had no such qualms and basically just stood there laughing. Putting up the electric wire was a bit of a struggle ... we would start stringing it and the pigs would follow us, pawing away at it and biting it. After they'd gotten tangled in the string once, bitten through it once, and had to be chased around a bunch I gave them dinner a bit early. That proved to be a good enough distraction to get things wrapped up on our end, but it was for sures a race against time.

We initially had big plans of not naming the pigs so we don't have as much trouble killing them when the time comes, but Devo came in after checking on them the first night and announced that "Goldenbutt, Mr Piggy and Mrs Piggy are all asleep in the house," so that went out the window pretty dang fast. I can already tell that it's going to be ridiculously difficult to send them on their way in the fall, but I think it's important to get a chance to see the whole process through, since I eat meat nowadays. It's way too easy to be divorced from the process. It'll be interesting to see how much of an effect it has on my eating habits, anyway.

All in all, everything is going really well here. We are estimating about two more weeks of crazy work until everything is planted, and it's definitely nice to have a time limit on it. I really love the work and love seeing things come together, but it's hard not to feel burnt out some of the time with the sheer number of hours we're putting in. Yesterday was a town day, so that was a good break. A day of driving instead of wheeling a wheelbarrow, and a good solid burrito and margarita interlude = good stuff! But, yeah, in all, I am still really really stoked. I like the valley we live in more and more every day, and I feel super lucky to get to be here. It'll be rad when more of the snow is gone from the mountains and when everything is in the garden and we can start doing some serious hiking as well.

pigs are here!

So, yup, we picked up the pigs today. And they are grunty and awesome and frisk around a lot and seem to like it here. And I am totes exhausted from getting their fence and house ready all week, so I am going to get off the internet and read a book, but I will tell you more about them soon, and you can at least check out a picture for now.

busy. and stoked.

As usual, super uber busy, but stuff is still going really radly here. Right now we're just pushing to get all the pig infastructure in place before the pigs themselves get here later this week. We are almost done building a little a-frame pig house (on skids, so it can be moved around). Devin and I built the floor together, then I did the framing myself (first time working on that kind of thing, and it was a lot of fun) and he has done all the wood siding, and I got the plywood nailed on the roof. We just need to tarpaper the roof and tow it into the field for now, then in the fall when we have a bit more time we're going to make cedar shingles to fancy up the roofing. You can see a bit of the house in the photo above, but I will post a real picture of it when it's done and looking a bit better.

Yesterday we rented a gas powered auger from Devin's work and got all the holes for the pig fencing dug and the fence posts in. Gas powered augers go like the proverbial hot damn, as long as you don't hit any rocks. The first five holes we dug were hugely mega rocky which was discouraging, but a rich source of terrifying crunchy noises and epic auger flailing. The last ten we did were ridiculously easy and rock free, so that was pretty rad. I think it took longer to clear the rocks out of those few holes than to do all of the digging, but it's now done. We're going to string the fencing tomorry, and then I just need to build a gate and some feed containers in some of my copious amounts of spare time, and we are pretty much ready for the piggiess to get here.

Speaking of newly arrived animals, Judi's cows got here today and seem to be settling in well. I have already had to haul Gretchen out of their pasture four times today (which is extra impressive given that it was rainy and she opted to stay in the house much of the day). The first three times she was just in there eating goose shit, but the last time she started barking at the cows and running back and forth in front of them. When they didn't, y'know, just step on her or whatever, she became encouraged and stepped up the pace. She got them running to one of the corners, and ran back and forth barking to keep them in place. Eventually she got distracted by more shit to eat, so I was able to scoop her up and get her the hell outta there. Jerk.

We did our first farmer's market in Nelson last weekend. I gotta say, I absolutely love the valley we live in, but I think I hate Nelson with a deep and burning passion. There are just so many hippies. More than you would even imagine, and they're all so damn sincere about being stupid hippies. I can't exactly put my finger on what it is about them that pushes my buttons so much, but, man, Devin and I were both ready to have total freakouts by the end of the day. I think the markets will be posi for getting off the farm and taking a break from the hard physical work and stuff for a day, and I'm sure there will be rad people there, but I'm definitely gonna have to learn more tolerance for hippies (or at least more deep breathing and relaxation skills) to do them without my head exploding.

In more posi news, we are already eating chives, radishes and rhubarb from the garden! The taters are starting to come up, the spinach is almost ready to be thinned (and eaten!), the kale is up, the transplanted cukes, pumpkin, butternut squash, cabbage and brussel sprouts are all thriving, and there will be a buttload of corn and some broccoli and cauliflower transplanted in by the end of tomorry. So, yeah, stuff is really coming along, and it's cool to see so much in the way of results so quickly.

Oh, and it looks like we will almost for sures be in Van for a couple of days and Victoria for a day near the end of June. Iskra is playing a couple of shows, so Devin is going to do that, and I am tagging along to get some sweet bro downs in. So, coastal pals, we should totes hang out.

i have a phone again!

Back to having phone and internet, after about five days without. Our road was getting re-gravelled, and in the process, some dude on a giant gravel truck knocked down our phone lines so we were phoneless for awhile. It's nice to be able to keep in touch with people again, at any rate.

Stuff here is aces .... hugely busy as per the norm. We transplanted cukes into the new field on Sunday (as per the photo above). They're planted in corn-based black plastic that keeps them warm and weed free and will be pretty much gone by July. We also pounded rebar into the ground and ran loops of PVC piping over it to make hoop houses for some extra heat and frost protection. They were initially wearing these stylish looking plastic party hat type cones as well, but it started getting too hot for them, so now they're naked. Judi and I seeded a bed of beets and one of carrots today, and we'll do parsnips tomorry. Devin and I are also hoping to get a buttload more potatoes in the ground tomorrow morning. We have a bunch of different varieties now .... there's a guy who lives about fifteen minutes down the road who is a huge potato enthusiast/nerd and a total sweetheart who gave us a good deal on some cool kinds of seed potatoes.

Devin started his part time job today. He's in at a small engine repair shop just down the road for half days four days a week. It works out perfectly in terms of distance and hours and stuff, and it looks like it'll be a really interesting place to work as well. I got EI, so I am really really stoked on the prospect of being able to spend as much time working on the farm this summer as I need to and not having to stress about money. It seems like it'll work out well doing work trades for rent as well ... we didn't do tons of paid work this month but our rent was under three hundred bucks total (!!!!).

We were starting to get pretty burnt out from all the days of trucking a million wheelbarrows of compost around and shoveling compost and raking stuff that will turn into compost and screening compost and running compost through the wood chipper to make it into smaller compost, so we took a half day off on Sunday, and will try to do this at least once a week. There's so much to do and it's really rewarding and absorbing and all that good stuff, but it's for sures important to actually, y'know, hang out and go for walks and drink beer and chill and ill a bit. We took a walk after dinner the other night and checked out the property a bit more, which was rad. The river is so low right now that we could just walk across to the island, so we snooped around there a bit, checked out the swimming hole for when it's hot enough, and tried to figure out where Chad will be able to fly-fish when he visits.

In animal news, the chicks are totes thriving and looking damn fine. The bigger ones have feet that have grown way faster than the rest of them, so they sort of have the same ridiculous proportions as puppies. They are pretty adorable. Our pigs get here in ten days or so. We were working on getting the old shed into shape as a pig house, but decided it is just too janky to use. So, we borrowed a book of plans for animal shelters and tomorrow morning will get started on building an a-frame pig hut. It'll be good to get more experience doing the more carpentry type building.

Oh, and I also finished my workbenches and built a table for the record player to live on and got yet more sweet tools. Life is pretty totally aces, all in all.